“I was holding him, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, oh my God, what did I just do?’ ” Berry told police in recorded confession.
William is one of at least 110 children 17 and younger whose deaths were linked to abuse and neglect between 2009 and 2013 in Massachusetts, a third of whom had at some point been under the watch of the state Department of Children and Families. Many others were likely known to the state but never subject to DCF supervision. The rest died without ever having a chance at state protection.
Records obtained by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting show that the vast majority of the dead were under the age of three, beaten, drowned, smothered or otherwise abused or neglected by caretakers. And their numbers have steadily increased, records show, from 14 reported abuse and neglect deaths in 2009 to 38 in 2013 – and state officials say numbers will likely remain elevated when the 2014 death toll is made public.
BOSTON - The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the state’s highest court, this week upheld the murder conviction of Michael A. McCarthy in the death of Bella Bond, a 2-year-old girl whose body was found four years ago in a trash bag on the shore of Deer Island in Winthrop. The court, in a 25-page opinion, dismissed McCarthy’s bid for a new trial after a review of the 2017 trial found no .
BOSTON - The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the state’s highest court, this week upheld the murder conviction of Michael A. McCarthy in the death of Bella Bond, a 2-year-old girl whose body was found four years ago in a trash bag on the shore of Deer Island in Winthrop. The court, in a 25-page opinion, dismissed McCarthy’s bid for a new trial after a review of the 2017 trial found no .
OPINION
David Almondâs death is horrifying. The state must protect other children in its care from the same fate.
Every moment in the life of a child matters.
By Denise Garlick and Carole FiolaUpdated May 7, 2021, 12:58 p.m.
Email to a Friend
David Almond died while under the protection of the Department of Children and Families, in October 2020.Office of the Child Advocate
âThe child protective system has many built-in safeguards, both internal and external to the Department of Children and Families. All of these safeguards failed David and resulted in his untimely death,â read the Office of the Child Advocateâs investigative report into the death of 14-year-old David Almond, an adolescent with autism who died in the care and custody of DCF on Oct. 21, 2020.